Economic growth represents a rise in economic entropy. If the second law of thermodynamics applied to economic systems, then one would expect that \(\Delta N > 0\) . However this is not true in real macroeconomic systems. In particular, one heuristic indicator for a recession is two consecutive quarters of falling NGDP. The second law of thermodynamics is statistically violated on small scales per the so-called fluctuation theorem, see e.g. [1]}, however this would imply a specific form of the violation in terms of the probabilities \(P\)
\(\frac{P(+\Delta N)}{P(-\Delta N)} = e^{\Delta N}\) 
